What Does Thermal Imaging Do For You? – Part 2

Hello, and welcome back to our blog here at Safe investment Home Inspections. This is part two of our blog series about thermal imaging. In our last blog, we talked about how thermal imaging works as well as some of the devices that are used. Keep reading to learn about the many uses of IR cameras for home inspection.

Uses Of Thermography

Energy Loss

Energy loss is one important use of thermography in a home inspection. Thermography allows the inspector to see what walls, floors, windows, or doors are losing heat. It can also detect malfunctioning systems like air conditioners or heatings systems that may be leaking. It’s important to know these things because you could be losing a lot of energy in your home, thus costing you more on your energy bills.

Moisture

Since evaporation causes cooling, moisture can be detected with thermal imaging. This helps a home inspector locate things like plumbing leaks, roof leaks, missing or wet insulation, and water around the foundation of the home. Leaks can cause a significant amount of damage to a home in the form of water damage and mold growth. Water leaks in the basement can indicate the need for serious foundational repairs and leaks in the roof may indicate the need for a roof repair.

Heat

In addition to knowing the coolest spots in the home, it’s also important to be able to see the hot spots. This can help locate overloaded circuits, overheated electrical equipment, electrical faults, and circuit breakers that need replacement. This will not only help you prevent a broken electrical system before it happens, but it can be used to locate potentially hazardous electrical components that could result in house fires.

Some additional things that can be located with thermography include pest infestations due to energy loss in shelter tubes that are created by certain insects. Certain rodents like mice and rats can be seen through thermal imaging because of the heat they give off. Thermography can also detect leaking flue pipes that can result in carbon monoxide poisoning.

Interpreting Data

Anyone can simply walk into a room with a thermal imaging device and see what parts of the room are hot and which are cold. However, it’s the actual interpretation process that will reveal if there is anything wrong with the home and how it can be fixed. It takes an eye for detail when it comes to interpreting this data because the inspector must know each part of the home and how it should look through a thermal imaging device. If something is out of the ordinary, they’ll know whether something should be done about it.

Contact Safe Investment Home Inspection

As you can see, there isn’t just one use for thermal imaging. It can help a qualified home inspector spot a lot of issues [or potential issues] with a home. If you’d like to learn more about our specific thermal imaging services contact your top rated home inspection company in Denver.